Is There a Prior Relationship?

In one version of the story, Cheng falls in love with a prostitute. The other implies that he was a long-term favored client. She warned him about an upcoming Chinese Navy crackdown on pirates based on some other information and saved his bacon. He proposed marriage to her when she was 26 but it didn't work out. Margaret Atwood has said that she hasn't put anything in her story that hasn't existed somewhere in the world at some point.